Perhaps my greatest joy in traveling abroad is the freedom I feel to be an unashamed voyeur. As a photographer the best way to satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies is through the lens of my camera. There is no better way than photography to discover a foreign location.
Now the travel ends and the work begins. All those images now need to be edited, named, and if they are good enough, processed. If you are interested in the nut-and-bolts of my process read on. If you are interested in the more philosophical aspects of editing skip down to “Decisions.”
There are many excellent tools for editing and processing photos. Lightroom and Aperture are both very powerful, I am somewhat familiar with both but workflow is built around Adobe Bridge and Photoshop. I use Adobe Bridge to import images from my camera to my computer. Bridge is an application in the Adobe CS3 Suite of applications. During the import, I set up the naming preferences in Bridge so all my imported files have a name in addition to a number. For example, the images from my recent trip all start with “CostaRica,” then the date shot, 121710, and the image number, 4112. So the file would appear on my computer as, CostaRica_121710_4112.CR2. The “.CR2” is the RAW format I use, more on that later.
Named files as they appear in Adobe Bridge (click on image to enlarge)
After the images are all loaded onto my computer and named, I view them in the easy to navigate display in Bridge. When I determine an image worthy, I double click (Mac) the image in the Bridge window. The image opens in a new window in my Photoshop application. Because my image is in the RAW format the window that opens allows for adjustments to color temperature, tint, exposure, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. This particular Photoshop window only opens if the file is in RAW format (.CR2). The RAW format allows the photographer to make numerous important adjustments to the image quickly and in a data rich environment. Finally the image is saved as a .PSD (Photoshop format) file for final tweaks.
This workflow preserves the original .CR2 (RAW) file untouched just incase I made some error along the way. It also differentiates between the original capture and files that made the cut through the post-production process.
Decisions
So now that the image has made the cut what next? Well I think back to my original vision. This image was taken at dawn. The morning was hazy and still. I had ventured out with some friends to see if the mid-tide would bring some promising surfing. I saw another surfer on the beach and felt his contemplative gaze captured the mood of the moment.
Original capture after basic RAW adjustments (click on image to enlarge)
The original capture above is almost monochromatic. The colors of land, ocean and sky hold very subtle variations. This would be a perfect image to process as black and white. Using Photoshop CS3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro (Silver Efex is an excellent black and white conversion plug-in for Photoshop) I increase the contrast and emphasize the red layer to bring out the contrast in the sky. I then adjust the curve, Image>Adjustment>Curves, to bring up the contrast in the mid-tones giving me a deeper black. This makes the texture of the sand more prominent. I eliminated a distracting stick in the sand with the cloning tool and the image is virtually finished. I use Nik Silver Efex Pro to add grain and a slight dark vignette to the sky. As you can see in the finished image below the diagonal sweep of the beach brings you to the surfer and then takes you to the far off shore emerging from the mist. This compositional element is much more dramatic in black and white and is closer to my original fascination with the scene.
Final black and White Image (click on image to enlarge)
I like the final black and white image but what would it look like in color?
So starting with the original .CR2 (RAW) file in Adobe Bridge I double clicked on the image and it opens in Photoshop. Remember how I saved my black and white version as a .PSD to keep the original file untouched? I adjust the color temperature to bring out more of the warm orange in the morning sky. The image is still a bit lifeless for my taste. I go to Image>Adjustments>Selective Color and I choose yellow from the menu. Selective color allows you to change the attributes of just that color in an image. I add more red to the yellow making it more of an orange. I then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and boost the saturation just a bit to bring up the vibrancy of the colors.
The image is better but the sky and the sand are too close in value. I create a new layer, Layer>New, and using the rectangular selection tool I select all the land and the water including a bit of sky. I copy my selection, Edit>Copy, and paste it into my new layer, Edit>Paste. Now I highlight the new layer and using curves, Image>Adjustment>Curves, I lighten and increase the contrast in my new layer. I then use the eraser tool to roughly erase where the sky and the line of hills in the distance meet. To make it all look more seamless I decrease the opacity in the layer menu to 80%. This has brightened the reflection on the water and lightened the sand. At this point I think I am done. I like the contrast of the warm sky and the surfer in cool shadow. I also like the color reflecting off the water. The final image is below.
Final color image (click on image to enlarge)
Final note:
The surfer I photographed spotted me and waved. I walked over to say hello and show him the image on my camera’s LCD screen. He was from Ireland of all places and also a photographer. We had a nice chat and exchanged information on favorite surf locations. It was a beautiful morning even without a decent swell.
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